Schools without principals: 42 out of 59 BMC English schools have no principals

16 Sep, 2013

Information supplied in reply to an application filed under the Right to Information Act has shown that the BMC's English medium elementary schools are running short of more than 50 % staff. Against the sanctioned posts of 497 teachers, there is a shortage of staff to the tune of 281 and the schools are being run by 216 faculty members only. Further the data shows that the classes of the BMC schools have only one teacher against 75 students while 42 schools are running without a principal which is against the norms of the Right to Education Act. As of now, there are a total of 16,279 students studying in these 59 English medium schools of BMC. It was planned to start 84 schools by 2013, however, only 59 schools have started and of these, 40 are run by BMC and 19 by the NGOs

According to the RTE norms, the student-teacher ratio should be 32:1. These BMC schools are running classes with more than double the capacity that is prescribed under the rules. The education department of the Mumbai Public School Project should have started 84 schools by now but only 59 schools have been started of which 40 are run by BMC and 19 by NGOs.